Misplaced Pages

Onion dome: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 04:55, 21 September 2006 editVanished user (talk | contribs)15,602 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit Latest revision as of 21:05, 14 October 2024 edit undoWikiCleanerBot (talk | contribs)Bots926,203 editsm v2.05b - Bot T12 CW#548 - Fix errors for CW project (Punctuation in link - Link equal to linktext)Tag: WPCleaner 
(387 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Type of roof}}
] in ]]]
{{multiple image
<!-- Essential parameters -->| align =
| total_width = 500
| direction = horizontal
| footer = <!-- Image 1 -->
| image1 = Chukhloma AvraamievMonastery 0564.jpg
| width1 =
| height1 =
| alt1 =
| caption1 = {{ill|Avraamiev Monastery|fr|Monastère Saint-Abraham-de-GorodetsMonastère Saint-Abraham-de-Gorodets}}, ], Russia founded in the 14th century
<!-- Image 2 -->| image2 = Taj Mahal (Edited).jpeg
| width2 =
| height2 =
| alt2 =
| caption2 = The ] in ] (India), an example of ]
| width =
}}


An '''onion dome''' (Russian: луковица, ''"lúkovitsa"'') <ref> and </ref> is a type of architectural ] usually associated with ]es. Such a dome is larger in diameter than the drum it is set upon and its height usually exceeds its width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point, and strongly resemble the ], after which they are named. An '''onion dome''' is a ] whose shape resembles an ].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AB89RHV9ucC&q=Such+a+dome+is+larger+in+diameter+than+the+drum+it+is+set+upon+and+its+height&pg=PA47|title=Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science|last=Block|first=Eric|date=2010|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|isbn=9780854041909|language=en}}</ref> Such domes are often larger in diameter than the ] (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point.


It is a typical feature of ] belonging to the ]. There are similar buildings in other ]an countries, and occasionally in ]: ] (Germany), ], and northeastern ]. Buildings with onion domes are also found in the ]al regions of ] and ], and the ]. However, old buildings outside Russia usually lack the construction typical of the Russian onion design.
Other important types of Orthodox cupolas are antique ''helmet domes'' (for example, those of the ] and ]), Ukrainian ''pear domes'' (]), and ] ''bud domes'' (] in ]).


Other types of Eastern Orthodox ]s include ''helmet domes'' (for example, those of the ] in ]), Ukrainian ''pear domes'' (] in ]), and ] ''bud domes'' (] in Kyiv) or an onion-helmet mixture like the ] in ].
==History==


== History ==
Art historians disagree when and why onion domes became a typical feature of ]. ] and ] were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles.
]
According to Wolfgang Born, the onion dome has its origin in Syria, where some ]-era mosaics show buildings with bulbous domes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Darke |first=Diana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRUOEAAAQBAJ&dq=bulbous+dome+umayyad+mosaic&pg=PA123 |title=Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe |date=2020-12-15 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-78738-510-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Born |first=Wolfgang |date=1944 |title=The Introduction of the Bulbous Dome into Gothic Architecture and Its Subsequent Development |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2849071 |journal=Speculum |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=208–221 |doi=10.2307/2849071 |jstor=2849071 |issn=0038-7134}}</ref> An early prototype of onion dome also appeared in Chehel Dokhter, a mid-11th century ] in Damghan region of Iran.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHMBAwAAQBAJ&dq=onion+dome+discovered+middle+east&pg=PA213 |title=Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places |last2=Watson |first2=Noelle |last3=Schellinger |first3=Paul |date=2014-03-05 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-25993-9 |language=en}}</ref>
=== In Russian architecture ===
], ] (1652)|222x222px]]
It is not completely clear when and why onion domes became a typical feature of ]. The curved onion style appeared in Russian architecture as early as the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AB89RHV9ucC&q=Such+a+dome+is+larger+in+diameter+than+the+drum+it+is+set+upon+and+its+height&pg=PA47|title=Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science|last=Block|first=Eric|date=2010|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|isbn=9780854041909|language=en}}</ref> But still several theories exist that the Russian onion shape was influenced by countries from the Orient, like ] and ], with whom Russia has had lengthy cultural exchange. ] and ] were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles, while the onion architecture is mostly very curved. Russian architecture used the dome shape not only for churches but also for other buildings.{{cn|date=December 2018}}


By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russian churches from before the ] had bulbous domes. The largest onion domes were erected in the seventeenth century in the area around ], incidentally famous for its large onions. Quite a few had more complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with ], while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of ]. By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russian churches from before the ] had bulbous domes. The largest onion domes were erected in the seventeenth century in the area around ]. A number of these had more complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with ], while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of ].{{cn|date=December 2018}}


=== Traditional view === ==== Oriental origin hypothesis ====
] ]
Supposedly,{{or|date=July 2019}} Russian ]s painted before the ] of 1237-1242 do not feature churches with onion domes. Two highly venerated pre-Mongol churches that have been rebuilt—the ] and the ], both in ]—display golden helmet domes. Restoration work on several other ancient churches has revealed some fragments of former helmet-like domes below newer onion cupolas.{{cn|date= December 2018}}
It has been posited{{by whom?|date=July 2019}} that onion domes first appeared in Russia during the reign of ] ({{reign | 1533 | 1584}}). The domes of ] have not been altered since the reign of Ivan's son ] ({{reign | 1584 | 1598}}), indicating the presence of onion domes in sixteenth-century Russia.{{cn|date=December 2018}}


Some scholars postulate that the Russians adopted onion domes from ], possibly from the ], whose conquest in 1552 Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St. Basil's Cathedral.<ref>{{cite book |last= Shvidkovsky |first= D. S. | title= Russian architecture and the West | publisher= Yale University Press | year= 2007 |isbn= 978-0-300-10912-2 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LQy9TJ2yOQEC | author-link= Dmitry Shvidkovsky }}</ref> Some scholars believe that onion domes first appeared in Russian wooden architecture above ]es. According to this theory, they were strictly utilitarian, as they prevented snow from piling on the ].<ref>A. П. Новицкий. Луковичная форма глав русских церквей. В кн.: Московское археологическое общество. Труды комиссии по сохранению древних памятников. Т. III. Moscow, 1909.</ref>
The earliest academic researchers of Russian ] pointed out that Russian icons painted before the ] do not feature churches with onion domes. Furthermore, two highly venerated pre-Mongol churches that have never been rebuilt—the ] and the Cathedral of St. Demetrius in ]—uniquely display golden helmet domes. Restoration works on several other ancient churches revealed some fragments of former helmet-like domes below newer onion cupolas.


==== Indigenous Russian origin hypothesis ====
Based on these findings, it was concluded that ancient Russian churches were helmet-shaped while onion domes had been introduced considerably later. It was posited that onion domes first appeared during the reign of ]. Indeed, the bulbous, wildly coloured domes of ] have not been altered since the reign of Ivan's son ], clearly indicating that onion domes did exist in sixteenth-century Russia.
] and ] have as many as twenty-five onion domes]]
In 1946, historian ], while analysing ] of ancient Russian chronicles, pointed out that most of them, from the thirteenth century onward, display churches with onion domes rather than helmet domes. ], who studied pre-Mongol Russian architecture, seconded his opinion that onion domes existed in Russia as early as the thirteenth century.<ref>Н. Н. Воронин. Архитектурный памятник как исторический источник (заметки к постановке вопроса). В кн.: Советская археология. Вып. XIX. М., 1954. С. 73.</ref> These findings demonstrated that Russian onion domes could not be imported from the Orient, where onion domes did not replace spherical domes until the fifteenth century.<ref>Б. А. Рыбаков. «Окна в исчезнувший мир (по поводу книги А. В. Арциховского «Древнерусские миниатюры как исторический источник»). В кн.: Доклады и сообщения историч. факультета МГУ. Вып. IV. М., 1946. С. 50.</ref>


Modern art historian ] surveyed hundreds of Russian ]s and miniatures, from the eleventh century onward. He concluded that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rus display only onion domes. The first onion domes appeared on some pictures from the twelfth century.<ref> S. V. Zagraevsky. . Published in Russian: С. В. Заграевский. Формы глав (купольных покрытий) древнерусских храмов. М.: Алев-В, 2008.</ref> He found only one icon from the late fifteenth century displaying a dome resembling the helmet instead of an onion. His findings led him to dismiss fragments of helmet domes discovered by restorators beneath modern onion domes as post-Petrine stylisations intended to reproduce the familiar forms of Byzantine cupolas. Zagraevsky also indicated that the oldest depictions of the two Vladimir cathedrals represent them as having onion domes, prior to their replacement by classicizing helmet domes. He explains the ubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the late thirteenth century by the general emphasis on verticality characteristic of ] from the late twelfth to early fifteenth centuries.<ref>Г. К. Вагнер. О своеобразии стилеобразования в архитектуре Древней Руси (возвращение к проблеме). В кн.: Архитектурное наследство. Вып. 38. М., 1995. С. 25.</ref> At that time, porches, pilasters, vaults and drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to make the church seem taller than it was.<ref>П. А. Раппопорт. Древнерусская архитектура. СПб, 1993.</ref> Another consideration proposed by Zagraevsky links the onion-shaped form of Russian domes with the weight of traditional Russian crosses, which are much larger and more elaborate than those used in Byzantium and Kievan Rus. Such ponderous crosses would have been easily toppled, if they had not been fixed to sizeable stones traditionally placed inside the elongated domes of Russian churches. It is impossible to place such a stone inside the flat dome of the Byzantine type.{{cn|date=December 2018}}
Some scholars even postulated that onion domes were borrowed by Russians from Muslim countries, probably from the ], whose conquest Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St. Basil's Cathedral.<ref>Compare the iconic domes of the ] ]. In the Oriental context, onion domes are occasionally described as ''Persian domes''.</ref> Others argued that onion domes first appeared in wooden architecture of the Russian North, above ]es. According to this theory, onion domes were strictly utilitarian, as they prevented snow from piling on the ].<ref>A.П.Новицкий. Луковичная форма глав русских церквей. В кн.: Московское археологическое общество. Труды комиссии по сохранению древних памятников. Т. III. Moscow, 1909.</ref>


== Symbolism ==
This theory became firmly entrenched in Soviet architectural theory. Based on the notion that onion domes did not exist in Russia before the mid-sixteenth century, restoration works on churches built before the seventeenth century have routinely involved replacement of onion domes with "more authentic" helmet-shaped domes. One example of such restoration is the ] in the ].
{{main|Symbolism of domes}}
] in ], Germany]]
Prior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church.<ref>И. Л. Бусева-Давыдова. ''Символика архитектуры по древнерусским письменным источникам XI-XVII вв.'' // Герменевтика древнерусской литературы. XVI - начало XVIII вв. Moscow, 1989.</ref> Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning candles. In 1917, religious philosopher Prince ] argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.


{{Blockquote
=== Alternative theories ===
|text=The Byzantine cupola above the church represents the vault of heaven above the earth. On the other hand, the Gothic spire expresses unbridled vertical thrust, which rises huge masses of stone to the sky. In contrast to these, our native onion dome may be likened to a tongue of fire, crowned by a cross and tapering towards a cross. When we look at the ], we seem to see a gigantic candle burning above Moscow. The Kremlin cathedrals and churches, with their multiple domes, look like huge chandeliers. The onion shape results from the idea of prayer as a soul burning towards heaven, which connects the earthly world with the treasures of the afterlife. Every attempt to explain the onion shape of our church domes by utilitarian considerations (for instance, the need to preclude snow from piling on the roof) fails to account for the most essential point, that of aesthetic significance of onion domes for our religion. Indeed, there are numerous other ways to achieve the same utilitarian result, e.g., spires, steeples, cones. Why, of all these shapes, ancient Russian architecture settled upon the onion dome? Because the aesthetic impression produced by the onion dome matched a certain religious attitude. The meaning of this religious and aesthetic feeling is finely expressed by a folk saying - "glowing with fervour" - when they speak about church domes.
] and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion domes]]
|author=Evgenii Troubetzkoy<ref>Е. Н. Трубецкой. Три очерка о русской иконе. 1917. Новосибирск, 1991. С. 10.</ref>
}}


Another explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the ] (cubiculum) in the ] in ].<ref>А. М. Лидов. Иерусалимский кувуклий. О происхождении луковичных глав. // Иконография архитектуры. Moscow, 1990.</ref>
In 1946, the historian ], while analysing ] of ancient Russian chronicles, pointed out that most of them, from the thirteenth century onward, display churches with onion domes rather than helmet domes.<ref>Б.А.Рыбаков. «Окна в исчезнувший мир (по поводу книги А.В.Арциховского «Древнерусские миниатюры как исторический источник»). В кн.: Доклады и сообщения историч. факультета МГУ. Вып. IV. М., 1946. С. 50.</ref> ], the foremost authority on pre-Mongol Russian architecture, seconded his opinion that onion domes existed in Russia as early as the thirteenth century, although they presumably could not be widespread.<ref>Н.Н.Воронин. Архитектурный памятник как исторический источник (заметки к постановке вопроса). В кн.: Советская археология. Вып. XIX. М., 1954. С. 73.</ref> These findings demonstrated that Russian onion domes could not be imported from the Orient, where onion domes did not replace spherical domes until the fifteenth century.


Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the ]. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. ], the first to record this interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by ], who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself and four lateral domes with four other ] of the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.{{cn|date=December 2018}}
Sergey Zagraevsky, a modern art historian, surveyed hundreds of Russian ]s and miniatures, from the eleventh century onward. He concluded that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rus display only onion domes.<ref>See photographs .</ref> He found only one icon from the late fifteenth century displaying a dome resembling the helmet instead of an onion. His findings led him to dismiss fragments of helmet domes discovered by restorators beneath modern onion domes as post-Petrine stylisations intended to reproduce the familiar forms of Byzantine cupolas. Zagraevsky also indicated that the oldest depictions of the two Vladimir cathedrals represent them as having onion domes, prior to their replacement by classicizing helmet domes.


The domes are often brightly painted: their colors may informally symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the ], the Holy Spirit, and ], respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the snowy north of Russia.{{cn|date=December 2018}}
Zagraevsky explains the ubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the late thirteenth century by the general emphasis on verticality characteristic of Russian architecture from the late twelfth to early fifteenth centuries.<ref>Г.К.Вагнер. О своеобразии стилеобразования в архитектуре Древней Руси (возвращение к проблеме). В кн.: Архитектурное наследство. Вып. 38. М., 1995. С. 25.</ref> At that period, porches, pilasters, vaults and drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to make the church seem taller than it was.<ref>See, for instance, the most authoritative survey of early Russian architecture: П.А.Раппопорт. Древнерусская архитектура. СПб, 1993.</ref> It seems logical that elongated, or onion, domes were part of the same proto-Gothic trend aimed at achieving pyramidal, vertical emphasis.<ref>Another important consideration proposed by Zagraevsky links the onion-shaped form of Russian domes with the weight of traditional Russian crosses, which are much larger and more elaborate than those used in Byzantium and Kievan Rus. Such ponderous crosses would have fallen aground during a storm, if they had not been fixed to sizeable stones traditionally placed inside the elongated domes of Russian churches. It is impossible to place such a stone inside the flat dome of the Byzantine type.</ref>


==Symbolism== ==Internationally==
===Asia===
] in the ] (sixteenth century)]]
====South Asia====
{{see also|History of domes in South Asia}}
The onion dome was also used extensively in ], which later went on to influence ]. It is also a common feature in ], particularly in ]s, and sometimes seen in ] as well.


<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px">
Prior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church.<ref>Бусева-Давыдова И.Л. ''Символика архитектуры по древнерусским письменным источникам XI-XVII вв.'' // Герменевтика древнерусской литературы. XVI - начало XVIII вв. Moscow, 1989.</ref> Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning candles. In 1917, noted religious philosopher Prince ] argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.<ref>"The Byzantine cupola above the church represents the vault of heaven above the earth. On the other hand, the Gothic spire expresses unbridled vertical thrust, which rises huge masses of stone to the sky. In contrast to these, our native onion dome may be likened to a tongue of fire, crowned by a cross and tapering towards a cross. When we look at the ], we seem to see a gigantic candle burning above Moscow. The Kremlin cathedrals and churches, with their multiple domes, look like huge chandeliers. The onion shape results from the idea of prayer as a soul burning towards heaven, which connects the earthly world with the treasures of the afterlife. Every attempt to explain the onion shape of our church domes by utilitarian considerations (for instance, the need to preclude snow from piling on the roof) fails to account for the most essential point, that of aesthetic significance of onion domes for our religion. Indeed, there are numerous other ways to achieve the same utilitarian result, e.g., spires, steeples, cones. Why, of all these shapes, ancient Russian architecture settled upon the onion dome? Because the aesthetic impression produced by the onion dome matched a certain religious attitude. The meaning of this religious and aesthetic feeling is finely expressed by a folk saying - "glowing with fervour" - when they speak about church domes". - See Е.Н.Трубецкой. Три очерка о русской иконе. 1917. Новосибирск, 1991. С. 10.</ref> Another explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the ] (cubiculum) in the ] in ].<ref>Лидов А.М. Иерусалимский кувуклий. О происхождении луковичных глав. // Иконография архитектуры. Moscow, 1990.</ref>
Badshahi Mosque 33 (edited).jpg|] in ], ]
AkalTakht NishanSahib.JPG|Gilded onion domes of the ] in ], ]
Madras-02-High Court-1976-gje.jpg|], an example of ] in ], ], India
</gallery>
====Elsewhere in Asia====
Outside the ], it is also used in ] and other places in the ] and ]. At the end of the 19th century, the Dutch-built ] in Aceh, ], which incorporated onion shaped dome. The shape of the dome has been used in numerous mosques in Indonesia since then.{{cn|date=December 2018}}


<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px">
Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the ]. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. ], the first to record such interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by ], who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself and four lateral domes with four other ] of the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.
File:Meuseujid_Raya.JPG|] from ] (])
File:Masjid_Ubudiah.jpg|] in ], ] (])
File:Jining Chongjue Si Tieta 2015.08.13 17-20-26.jpg|Pagoda of Chongjue Temple in ] (])
</gallery>


===Europe===
The domes are often brightly painted: their colours may informally symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the ], the Holy Spirit, and ], respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the snowy north of Russia.
====Western and Central countries====
] domes in the shape of an onion (or other vegetables or flower-buds) were common in the ] as well. The first one was built in 1576 by the ] ] (1512–1594) on the church of the ] in ]. Usually made of ] sheet, onion domes appear on ] churches all over southern ], ], ], ], and ] and Northeast ]. Onion domes were also a favourite of 20th-century Austrian architectural designer ].{{cn|date=December 2018}}


<gallery widths="170" heights="170">
== References ==
File:Mittersill.jpg|] in ] (])
] (1165)]] ] in ] (1687)—the height of the main drum and dome exceeds the height of the main cube of the church]]
File:St. Maria Ramersdorf-München 1.jpg|], in ] (])
<references/>
File:Onion Dome Copper.jpg|Traditional construction and copper cladding, in ] (])
File:Onion Dome from the Inside.jpg|Inside the dome during construction, in ] (])
File:Kirchturmspitze oristano duomo santa maris assunta.JPG|Cupola of ] cathedral's bell tower, in ] (])
File:Parrocchia di Santa Sofia V.M., San Vero Milis, Oristano, Sardinia, Italy - panoramio.jpg|Santa Sofia church in San Vero Milis, ] (])
File:St-lazare-cour.jpg|] from ] (])
File:Fläsch Autumn 2020 05.jpg|Church of St. Amandus in ]
</gallery>


====Southern countries====
==External links==
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px">
*
File:Куполата на црквата „Св. Никола“ во Селци.jpg|Cupola of St. Athanasius Church in ] (])
</gallery>


===The Americas===
]
The ], a ] and ] ] in ], ], also features onion domes on the roof of the structure.
]


<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px">
]
File:CornPalace2008.jpg|] in ] (], USA)
File:Longwood by Highsmith 02.jpg|], in ] (], USA)
File:Main_Street_Springfield_Mass_1905.jpg|Fuller Block in ] (], USA), domes since removed
</gallery>

==See also==
* ]
* ]

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons-inline|Onion domes}}

{{Roofs}}
{{Islamic architecture}}
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 21:05, 14 October 2024

Type of roof Avraamiev Monastery, Kostroma Oblast, Russia founded in the 14th centuryThe Taj Mahal in Agra (India), an example of Mughal architecture

An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point.

It is a typical feature of churches belonging to the Russian Orthodox church. There are similar buildings in other Eastern European countries, and occasionally in Western Europe: Bavaria (Germany), Austria, and northeastern Italy. Buildings with onion domes are also found in the Oriental regions of Central and South Asia, and the Middle East. However, old buildings outside Russia usually lack the construction typical of the Russian onion design.

Other types of Eastern Orthodox cupolas include helmet domes (for example, those of the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes (St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv), and Baroque bud domes (St Andrew's Church in Kyiv) or an onion-helmet mixture like the St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod.

History

Umayyad mosaic showing a building with an onion dome-like appearance

According to Wolfgang Born, the onion dome has its origin in Syria, where some Umayyad Caliphate-era mosaics show buildings with bulbous domes. An early prototype of onion dome also appeared in Chehel Dokhter, a mid-11th century Seljuk architecture in Damghan region of Iran.

In Russian architecture

Onion domes at the Church of the Resurrection, Kostroma (1652)

It is not completely clear when and why onion domes became a typical feature of Russian architecture. The curved onion style appeared in Russian architecture as early as the 13th century. But still several theories exist that the Russian onion shape was influenced by countries from the Orient, like India and Persia, with whom Russia has had lengthy cultural exchange. Byzantine churches and architecture of Kievan Rus were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles, while the onion architecture is mostly very curved. Russian architecture used the dome shape not only for churches but also for other buildings.

By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russian churches from before the Petrine period had bulbous domes. The largest onion domes were erected in the seventeenth century in the area around Yaroslavl. A number of these had more complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with Ukrainian Baroque, while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of Transcaucasia.

Oriental origin hypothesis

Onion domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral

Supposedly, Russian icons painted before the Mongol invasion of Rus' of 1237-1242 do not feature churches with onion domes. Two highly venerated pre-Mongol churches that have been rebuilt—the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, both in Vladimir—display golden helmet domes. Restoration work on several other ancient churches has revealed some fragments of former helmet-like domes below newer onion cupolas. It has been posited that onion domes first appeared in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (r. 1533–1584). The domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral have not been altered since the reign of Ivan's son Fyodor I (r. 1584–1598), indicating the presence of onion domes in sixteenth-century Russia.

Some scholars postulate that the Russians adopted onion domes from Muslim countries, possibly from the Khanate of Kazan, whose conquest in 1552 Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St. Basil's Cathedral. Some scholars believe that onion domes first appeared in Russian wooden architecture above tent-like churches. According to this theory, they were strictly utilitarian, as they prevented snow from piling on the roof.

Indigenous Russian origin hypothesis

Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion domes

In 1946, historian Boris Rybakov, while analysing miniatures of ancient Russian chronicles, pointed out that most of them, from the thirteenth century onward, display churches with onion domes rather than helmet domes. Nikolay Voronin, who studied pre-Mongol Russian architecture, seconded his opinion that onion domes existed in Russia as early as the thirteenth century. These findings demonstrated that Russian onion domes could not be imported from the Orient, where onion domes did not replace spherical domes until the fifteenth century.

Modern art historian Sergey Zagraevsky surveyed hundreds of Russian icons and miniatures, from the eleventh century onward. He concluded that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rus display only onion domes. The first onion domes appeared on some pictures from the twelfth century. He found only one icon from the late fifteenth century displaying a dome resembling the helmet instead of an onion. His findings led him to dismiss fragments of helmet domes discovered by restorators beneath modern onion domes as post-Petrine stylisations intended to reproduce the familiar forms of Byzantine cupolas. Zagraevsky also indicated that the oldest depictions of the two Vladimir cathedrals represent them as having onion domes, prior to their replacement by classicizing helmet domes. He explains the ubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the late thirteenth century by the general emphasis on verticality characteristic of Russian church architecture from the late twelfth to early fifteenth centuries. At that time, porches, pilasters, vaults and drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to make the church seem taller than it was. Another consideration proposed by Zagraevsky links the onion-shaped form of Russian domes with the weight of traditional Russian crosses, which are much larger and more elaborate than those used in Byzantium and Kievan Rus. Such ponderous crosses would have been easily toppled, if they had not been fixed to sizeable stones traditionally placed inside the elongated domes of Russian churches. It is impossible to place such a stone inside the flat dome of the Byzantine type.

Symbolism

Main article: Symbolism of domes
Group of three blue domes at the St. Simeon of the Wonderful Mountain Church in Dresden, Germany

Prior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church. Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning candles. In 1917, religious philosopher Prince Evgenii Troubetzkoy argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.

The Byzantine cupola above the church represents the vault of heaven above the earth. On the other hand, the Gothic spire expresses unbridled vertical thrust, which rises huge masses of stone to the sky. In contrast to these, our native onion dome may be likened to a tongue of fire, crowned by a cross and tapering towards a cross. When we look at the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, we seem to see a gigantic candle burning above Moscow. The Kremlin cathedrals and churches, with their multiple domes, look like huge chandeliers. The onion shape results from the idea of prayer as a soul burning towards heaven, which connects the earthly world with the treasures of the afterlife. Every attempt to explain the onion shape of our church domes by utilitarian considerations (for instance, the need to preclude snow from piling on the roof) fails to account for the most essential point, that of aesthetic significance of onion domes for our religion. Indeed, there are numerous other ways to achieve the same utilitarian result, e.g., spires, steeples, cones. Why, of all these shapes, ancient Russian architecture settled upon the onion dome? Because the aesthetic impression produced by the onion dome matched a certain religious attitude. The meaning of this religious and aesthetic feeling is finely expressed by a folk saying - "glowing with fervour" - when they speak about church domes.

— Evgenii Troubetzkoy

Another explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the aedicula (cubiculum) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. Vasily Tatischev, the first to record this interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by Patriarch Nikon, who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself and four lateral domes with four other patriarchs of the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.

The domes are often brightly painted: their colors may informally symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the snowy north of Russia.

Internationally

Asia

South Asia

See also: History of domes in South Asia

The onion dome was also used extensively in Mughal architecture, which later went on to influence Indo-Saracenic architecture. It is also a common feature in Sikh architecture, particularly in Gurudwaras, and sometimes seen in Rajput architecture as well.

Elsewhere in Asia

Outside the Indian subcontinent, it is also used in Iran and other places in the Middle East and Central Asia. At the end of the 19th century, the Dutch-built Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Aceh, Indonesia, which incorporated onion shaped dome. The shape of the dome has been used in numerous mosques in Indonesia since then.

Europe

Western and Central countries

Baroque domes in the shape of an onion (or other vegetables or flower-buds) were common in the Holy Roman Empire as well. The first one was built in 1576 by the architect Johannes Holl (1512–1594) on the church of the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Maria Stern in Augsburg. Usually made of copper sheet, onion domes appear on Catholic churches all over southern Germany, Switzerland, Czech lands, Austria, and Sardinia and Northeast Italy. Onion domes were also a favourite of 20th-century Austrian architectural designer Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Southern countries

The Americas

The World's Only Corn Palace, a tourist attraction and basketball arena in Mitchell, South Dakota, also features onion domes on the roof of the structure.

See also

Notes and references

  1. Block, Eric (2010). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 9780854041909.
  2. Darke, Diana (2020-12-15). Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-78738-510-8.
  3. Born, Wolfgang (1944). "The Introduction of the Bulbous Dome into Gothic Architecture and Its Subsequent Development". Speculum. 19 (2): 208–221. doi:10.2307/2849071. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2849071.
  4. Ring, Trudy; Watson, Noelle; Schellinger, Paul (2014-03-05). Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-25993-9.
  5. Block, Eric (2010). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 9780854041909.
  6. Shvidkovsky, D. S. (2007). Russian architecture and the West. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10912-2.
  7. A. П. Новицкий. Луковичная форма глав русских церквей. В кн.: Московское археологическое общество. Труды комиссии по сохранению древних памятников. Т. III. Moscow, 1909.
  8. Н. Н. Воронин. Архитектурный памятник как исторический источник (заметки к постановке вопроса). В кн.: Советская археология. Вып. XIX. М., 1954. С. 73.
  9. Б. А. Рыбаков. «Окна в исчезнувший мир (по поводу книги А. В. Арциховского «Древнерусские миниатюры как исторический источник»). В кн.: Доклады и сообщения историч. факультета МГУ. Вып. IV. М., 1946. С. 50.
  10. S. V. Zagraevsky. Forms of the domes of the ancient Russian temples. Published in Russian: С. В. Заграевский. Формы глав (купольных покрытий) древнерусских храмов. М.: Алев-В, 2008.
  11. Г. К. Вагнер. О своеобразии стилеобразования в архитектуре Древней Руси (возвращение к проблеме). В кн.: Архитектурное наследство. Вып. 38. М., 1995. С. 25.
  12. П. А. Раппопорт. Древнерусская архитектура. СПб, 1993.
  13. И. Л. Бусева-Давыдова. Символика архитектуры по древнерусским письменным источникам XI-XVII вв. // Герменевтика древнерусской литературы. XVI - начало XVIII вв. Moscow, 1989.
  14. Е. Н. Трубецкой. Три очерка о русской иконе. 1917. Новосибирск, 1991. С. 10.
  15. А. М. Лидов. Иерусалимский кувуклий. О происхождении луковичных глав. // Иконография архитектуры. Moscow, 1990.

External links

Roofs
Roof shapes Cross-gabled roof
Roof elements
Islamic architecture
Styles
Elements
Materials
Arches
Roofs
Religious
objects
Decorations
Rooms
Gardens
Outdoor
objects
Passive
cooling
Types
Religious
Civilian
Military
Resources
Influences
Category pages
Part of Islamic arts • icon Architecture portal • Islam portal
Categories: